Democratic Labor Party senator John Madigan wants tighter controls on foreign investment, suggesting the level of ownership of farms by foreigners is already too high.

Senator Madigan, interviewed on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, said while he was in favour of foreign investment he did not believe Australia should be “selling off the farm" and there was a lot of public concern over foreign ownership.

“Some 5.8 per cent of Australian land is foreign controlled but it’s 11.3 per cent of farmland . . . that should ring alarm bells for any person in the community," Senator Madigan said.

“I am not opposed to more foreign investment but foreign ownership is another issue and I don’t think we as politicians . . . were elected to sell out future generations," he said.

Senator Madigan is one of a number of mainly conservative MPs who will hold the balance of power in the Senate after July next year.

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The Palmer United Party’s foreign investment policy is unclear though leader Clive Palmer has previously welcomed foreign investment and his interests have benefited from it.

Mr Palmer has however urged government to divert some iron ore to the eastern States to establish local ore processing centres there and create local jobs.

The Coalition unveiled a policy in the lead-up to the election which would see the threshold at which Foreign Investment Review board must scrutinise an application dropped from $248 million to just $15 million.